My good friend stumbled upon a really cool blog the other day. It is called Piercing Through and it was created by a student majoring in print journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The blog describes itself as being about space, spirituality, psychedelics, philosophy, and everything else beyond this realm of existence.
    My favorite part of the blog is the artwork it features. It is full of psychedelic artwork,  beautiful landscapes, and celestial bodies. Images that I could look at all day if I had that kind of time to spare.
    It is a pretty awesome blog site in my opinion. I recommend that you all check it out. If you have an open mind maybe you can learn something new or at least think the artwork is pretty neat. I know that I enjoyed my look around.

http://piercingthrough.blogspot.com/
   

    It has finally happened, I have broken down and set up a Twitter account. Those of you that know me personally know that I have been holding out as long as I could to avoid logging onto Twitter. Now, my life on Twitter has begun and there is no going back.
    So far, I have not done too much with my Twitter profile. I have not tweeted yet, and a link to this blog post will probably serve as my first tweet. I am following a few people and organizations that I am interested in, but I do not have a whole lot of people following me yet.
    All of these things will soon change. I will eventually get a handle on Twitter. By that time, I will probably be using it just as much as I use Facebook. It has the potential to be a great tool for me as a student of English for New Media. I just have to embrace Twitter and let the tweets flow.

    Over the weekend, I have been traveling around the internet checking out some of my fellow classmates blogs. I found a lot of cool things that gave me ideas about what I should be doing more of on my own blog.
    I noticed a lot my classmates were posting more images to their blogs than I have been doing. I really liked the balance of images and text that Laura Bieber has going on her Invisible Zombie Girlfriend blog. Nothing melts the heart and brings people to your blog like adorable kittens. The cuteness is hard to resist. Another blog that does a great job using images and video is Ashley Rieger's A Study in New Media. Almost all of her posts have a picture to go along with them. Both blog's visual appeal benefit from having images to look at as well as text.
    Another really cool thing that a few of my classmates have been doing with their blogs is adding  goodreads widgets. Vanessa Carlson's Screams in Silence blog and Alysia Derry-Chavez's The Sounds of Writing blog both have there own goodreads widget. I really like the idea of sharing good books with other people. Hopefully, I can get my own goodreads widget put up on here soon.
    Overall, I think all my classmates are doing a great job blogging. If your interested in getting into blogging, you should check out some of the blogs I have links to on my page. There are tons of great ideas spread out through each of them.

Dillon Dwyer
   

    Recently, I was asked to checkout four different blogs for one of my classes. Turns out, I was impressed by all of them. They all have unique designs and content that stand out. Here are the links to the sites I checked out.

http://cassiemarieedwards.blogspot.com

    The first blog I checked out was Cassie Marie Edward's blog. I really like the art she creates and posts to her blog. It is incredible. When I first saw the paintings, I thought that I was looking at photographs of real ceramic figures and real landscapes. She has amazing artistic ability and vision. Check it out. Do it. Now! Please!

http://madvilletimes.com

    The next stop on my blog tour was Cory Heidelberger's Madville Times. This blog was also awesome, In a different way of course. From the few post I read, I could tell Cory Heidelberger was probably a pretty cool dude. He blogs about issues in South Dakota and more specifically the Madison area. What makes him so awesome is they way he voices his opinions. I really like the logic this guy uses and the way he writes. If you live in South Dakota and have an opinion on any issues in the state, you should to give this blog some of your attention.

http://madisonareaartscouncil.org

    For the third destination on my blog tour, I found myself at the blog of the Madison Area Arts Council. I really admire this blog for reaching out and inspiring people to share their work. Lots of different events and activities are posted for people to take part in. When I looked around the site, I felt a sense of community that was centered around art and sharing it with other artist. It was awesome! I think I might have to look into getting more involved with the Madison Area Arts Council. I recommend that if you are an artist in Madison, SD you should click the link I posted above.

http://www.44interactive.com/blog

    The final blog I visited was Catheryn Vogel's blog for 44 Interactive's website. 44 interactive is a web design company based out of Sioux Falls, SD. I found the blog to be interesting. Catheryn has a writing style that I admire. As a student of English for New Media, I hope to follow in Catheryn's footsteps. I hope that when I graduate with my degree, I will have worked hard enough to get a job like Catheryn has at 44 interactive. Check it out!

    I recommend all four of these blogs. Each one has its own distinct purpose but all are equally awesome in their own ways. I didn't regret my blog tour. If you checked out all the blogs, you should not have any regrets and hopefully you learned something new.

Dillon Dwyer

    Here is a short video I created for a class project. I wanted to show how all of these individual mediums fall under the category of English for New Media.

I have been here for ages
Older than the oldest of earthbound sages

It is hard to shape something like me
From the earth I flow free

Time will always have its way
Wearing at me everyday

For all the erosion I have endured
I will become polished smooth and finely matured

1/2 cup of lies
A pinch of narcissism
1/4 cup of tears (freshly cried)
A sprinkle of realism
Bring to a boil
Season to hate

Love
Love is something
Something we are meant to share
A life without love would be next to nothing
Nothing for you to show you care
Love gives purpose to everything
Everything breaths love in like air

Dillon Dwyer 

    Since the creation of my blog, I have posted a total of 12 entries. I have been using my blog mostly as a place for class assignments, random thoughts, and the creative writing I have been working on. None of my articles have received any comments yet, but I have managed to garner some Facebook likes. I am hoping to increase the traffic coming through my blog by linking it to other peoples blogs and sharing my articles on Facebook. I am still in the infant stages of getting my blog up to par with the expectation I have for it. Slowly but steadily, I am gaining some ground.

    It looks like YouTube is thinking about changing its ways and joining the dark side of the force. YouTube is actually thinking about introducing paid content to their new media powerhouse of a website. Here is the link to the article, YouTube Expected to Experiment With Paid Subscriptions for Some Channels.
     Is this the fate of all free things? First, we started charging people to "own" land. Then, we started paying money to drink water. Now, we are looking at taking the best part of YouTube, the fact that its free, and saying that we need more money. 
    If this really does happen and YouTube takes its first steps towards becoming a paid programming provider, I will be disappointed. The Evil Empire will have spread its reach a little further in the galaxy. Freedom will have once again been corrupted by a desire for more money, and all the beautiful reasons that I once loved YouTube will possibly become all the same reasons I hate television.